Couple standing up for local democracy

Huntsville Forester

Citizens of Huntsville and Muskoka:

My husband Jamie and I have been very concerned ever since we discovered that the Huntsville town council (past) had voted unanimously to switch our municipal election process completely over to Internet and telephone voting and to delegate the responsibility for collecting and counting votes to an out-of-town business called Intelivote.

Along with another Huntsville resident named Grant Hallman, we voiced our concerns at several government levels but since the main focus for everyone at the time when this matter came to our attention was the G8 we decided not to press forward with our concerns at that time.

Now that the election has taken place and our new council is settling, we would like to raise our concerns loudly and clearly while the memory of the election and it’s considerable problems and glitches are still with us.

#1. We have initiated a new citizen’s group called Citizens for Secret And Verifiable Elections because we believe that Internet voting is a threat to democracy and would like to see our town council reverse its decision until a more thorough examination of the issues is undergone.

We have called a public meeting of this group to be held at the Huntsville Legion on Thursday, Nov. 18, a week after Remembrance Day at 7 p.m.

We have also started a Facebook Group called Citizens for Secret And Verifiable Elections—note the capital letters.

We encourage you to join us in exploring the issues at stake and become a part of this citizen’s movement to stop any further spread of Internet voting into the provincial and federal election process.

#2. We are interested in counting the number of voters who were unable to cast their vote in the past election due to problems with accessing the system on Oct. 25 or confusion about how to proceed.

If you are one of these people please send a letter with your name and address and story of your experience to Jamie Jordan, 131 Parkway Plaza, #14, Huntsville, Ontario P1H 1C2 or email Jamie with your story at jamie@macs-at-work.com.We hope to see you on the 18th.